How to Secure AI Data Analysis Agents

AI data analysis agents query databases, process datasets, generate visualizations, and sometimes write results to external systems — each of these actions represents an exfiltration or corruption risk if ungated. SafeClaw by Authensor enforces deny-by-default policies that evaluate every action your data analysis agent attempts before execution, preventing unauthorized data access, network exfiltration, and destructive queries. With sub-millisecond evaluation overhead, your analysis pipelines run at full speed with full safety.

Quick Start

npx @authensor/safeclaw

This scaffolds a .safeclaw/ directory. Every action is denied until you write explicit allow rules for your data analysis workflows.

Data Exfiltration Prevention

The primary risk with data analysis agents is data leaving your perimeter. An agent that can make HTTP requests can send your entire dataset to an external endpoint:

# .safeclaw/policies/data-analysis.yaml
rules:
  - id: block-external-network
    action: network.request
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      destination:
        not_pattern: "{localhost,*.internal.company.com,127.0.0.1}"
    reason: "Block all external network requests"

- id: allow-internal-apis
    action: network.request
    effect: allow
    conditions:
      destination:
        pattern: "*.internal.company.com"
      method: "GET"
    reason: "Allow GET requests to internal APIs only"

- id: block-file-upload
    action: network.request
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      method: "POST"
      contentType:
        pattern: "multipart/form-data*"
    reason: "Block file uploads to any destination"

Query Sandboxing

Data analysis agents need database access, but that access should be strictly scoped to read operations on approved tables:

rules:
  - id: allow-analytics-reads
    action: database.query
    effect: allow
    conditions:
      query:
        pattern: "SELECTFROM {analytics,metrics,events,aggregates}"
      readOnly: true
    reason: "Agent can read from analytics tables"

- id: block-pii-tables
    action: database.query
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      query:
        pattern: "FROM {users,customers,accounts,payments}"
    reason: "PII-containing tables are off-limits"

- id: block-write-operations
    action: database.query
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      query:
        pattern: "{INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,DROP,CREATE,ALTER}"
    reason: "All write operations are blocked"

- id: deny-all-queries
    action: database.query
    effect: deny
    reason: "Default deny for all other queries"

Output Validation

Even when queries are properly sandboxed, the agent's output — reports, CSVs, charts — can inadvertently contain sensitive data. Gate output actions:

rules:
  - id: allow-write-reports-dir
    action: file.write
    effect: allow
    conditions:
      path:
        pattern: "output/reports/*/.{csv,json,png,pdf}"
    reason: "Agent can write reports to designated output directory"

- id: block-large-exports
    action: file.write
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      size:
        greaterThan: 52428800  # 50MB
    reason: "Block suspiciously large file exports"

- id: deny-all-writes
    action: file.write
    effect: deny
    reason: "Default deny all other file writes"

Row-Count Limits

Prevent agents from dumping entire tables by enforcing row limits at the policy level:

rules:
  - id: block-unlimited-queries
    action: database.query
    effect: deny
    conditions:
      query:
        not_pattern: "LIMIT"
    reason: "All queries must include a LIMIT clause"

Why SafeClaw

• 446 tests covering policy evaluation, including edge cases in query pattern matching
• Deny-by-default — no data access until you explicitly permit it
• Sub-millisecond evaluation — negligible overhead even on high-throughput analysis pipelines
• Hash-chained audit trail — every query attempt is logged with tamper-proof integrity for compliance audits
• Works with Claude AND OpenAI — same policies apply regardless of which model powers your analysis agent

Cross-References

• How to Prevent AI Agent Data Exfiltration
• Data Analysis Agent Recipe
• How to Audit AI Agent Actions
• Tamper-Proof Audit Trail Explained